「解けない謎はないんです」

"Look, a ladder!"

"That's a "step"-ladder"

"So? What's the difference? You need to stop judging things based on narrow-minded cultural assumptions, Nick!"

"Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney"

Oh, something Dutch! But Japanese!

Whereas modern criminal court-room drama mainly focus on a) defense attorneys, b) prosecution, c) lay judges or c) expert witnesses, you seldom see one featuring judges. Which is logical, I concur, but in the old, old times, judges in Asia were pretty much the only factor of importance in the courtroom, which were more like civil courtrooms, with individuals prosecuting each other and the judge as acting as the one who decides who was right. Probably the most famous example in the West would be Van Gulik's Judge Dee. Which is a pretty amusing series, featuring a Chinese judge who acts as a detective.

Bertus Aafjes did something similar like Van Gulik. Van Gulik based his Judge Dee on the historical Judge Dee (see also Parallel Cases under the Pear-Tree, a translation by Van Gulik of real Chinese court records). Bertus Aafjes wrote several stories starring Judge Ooka, who was based on Ooka Echizen, a famous judge presiding in Edo in Tokugawa Japan and who is still revered as a wise judge, who was able to find solutions for seemingly impossible problems. Like Van Gulik, Aafjes didn't 'storify' existing Ooka legends, but came up with original stories. Een Ladder tegen een wolk ("A Ladder against a Cloud") is the first short story collection by Bertus Aafjes featuring ten  original stories with Ooka. They're all quite short, maybe ten pages, sometimes less and usually feature a problem that is seemingly impossible to solve, until the wise Ooka intervenes (note that my summaries are really short this time, as the stories themselves are short too).

De haan heeft gegaapt of de zaak van de vele moordenaars ("The Cock Yawned or the Case of the Multiple Murderers") is about three old friends who accuse each other of murder. One says he did it, the other she did it and the last one says they both did it. Which of them is the real murderer?

In Een ladder tegen een wolk of de zaak van de afperser ("A Ladder against a Cloud or the Case of the Blackmailer"), an old couple is forced to steal in order to pay a blackmailer who had found out they had illegally left the city of Edo. The old couple gets caught while stealing. Ooka wants to be lenient on the old couple, but that would mean that he would have to let the blackmailer go.

In Wie de schaduw liefheeft krijgt het koud of de zaak van de wanhopige samoerai ("He Who Loves the Shadow gets Cold or the Case of the Desperate Samurai"), Ooka gets a strange request by a woman: her husband, an ex-samurai, is unhappy now he has to work in a store (rather than carrying a sword) and because of that, they lose clients everyday. How is Ooka able to make the ex-samurai content again?

In Wie zich met vermiljoen mengt wordt rood of de zaak van de identieke verdachten ("He Who Mingles with Vermillion turns Red or the Case of the Identical Suspects"), Ooka is confronted with the ancient problem of unreliable witnesses. The witnesses point to two different men as the thief of their store. Ooka is sure one of them is the thief, but which one? 

In De ware mens is geen werktuig of de zaak van de woedende winkelier ("A True Man is Not a  Tool or the case of the Raging Retailer") a woman begs Ooka to help her son: he works at her brother's store, but gets abused a lot. Ooka takes the case and uses his wisdom in sorting things out.

In Een wilde gans is honderd goudstukken waard maar men moet er eerst drie uitgeven voor een pijl of de zaak van De Wenkende Kat ("A Wild Goose is worth 100 Gold Coins but You have to Pay 3 Coins First for an Arrow or the Case of the Inviting Cat"), Ooka gets out to find decisive proof that one of the suspects in his custody is the person they're looking for.

In Zelfs de koelies bemerken nog wie de geliefde van de keizer is of de zaak van de zonderlinge spion ("Even the Coolies know who the Emperor's Lover is or the Case of the Strange Spy"), Ooka has to sort out a strange case wherein one family has planted a baby as a spy in another family.

In Ook een aap valt wel eens uit een boom of de zaak van de dief van Toranomon ("Sometimes even a Monkey Falls Out of a Tree or The Case of the Toranomon Thief"), Ooka is having troubles catching the Torananomon Thief and a different judge, Kujou is appointed to take over the case of Ooka.

Ooka faces his biggest challenge in Beter zijn leven te verliezen dan zijn gezicht of de zaak van het vrijwillige doodvonnis ("Better Losing His Life than his Face or The Case of the Voluntary Death Sentence"), as thanks to a trap by his enemies, Ooka is forced to sign his own death sentence!

Finally, in Als men er drie jaar op gaat zitten wordt zelfs een rotsblok wel warm of de zaak van de beide eerstgeborenen ("If You Sit On It for Three Days Even a Rock Will Become Warm or The Case of the Two First-Borns"), Ooka has to identify which of the identical twins is the first-born in an inheritance case.

The stories are amusing, very much like the cases in Parallel Cases under the Pear-Tree (even though that's Chinese). The focus on finding solutions for seemingly impossible problems is fun, even if sometimes it's not nearly as brilliant as the text tries to make you think. As someone studying Japanese studies though, I sometimes had to let out a Marge Simpson "hmm...." moan though. While I gather that Bertus Aafjes has visited Japan and it's mostly correct, some details do seem a bit iffy. Which is also a reason I don't think Judge Ooka's as fun as Judge Dee. At least, this particular short story collection was OK to read as a snack, between other books, but it sure didn't leave me satisfied.

Original Dutch title: Bertus Aafjes, Een Ladder tegen een Wolk

「ヤツはとんでもないものを盗んでいきました・・・ あなたの心です！」

"Do you have any proof of what you're saying?"

"None whatsoever," replied Lupin. "But proof is sometimees less convincing than logic." 

"La Cagliostro se Venge"

Oh, look, an Arsene Lupin review of something not written in Japanese! Oh, and this planned posting thing is awesome.

While not as big an adventure like 813 or Les Dents du tigre, La Comtesse de Cagliostro ("Countess Cagliostro") was one of the more engaging Arsene Lupin stories, chronicling his earliest big heist as a thief and his battles against and affairs with the mysterious Countess Cagliostro. As I couldn't find an English translation at the time, I read the whole thing in German and it's the only German book I own. I love Lupin that much. Anyway,  while Lupin had seemingly won in La Comtesse,  readers knew that a horrible plan had been set in motion by Cagliostro for her revenge. It was just a matter of time.
 

Well, time and availability. I had wanted to read La Cagliostro se Venge ("Countess Cagliostro's Revenge") for some years now, but it wasn't until last year that an English translation (bundled with an English translation of La Comtesse) was published. Even worse that release had kinda slipped under my radar too!  But now, a year late, I finally got to continue in the Lupin saga. In La Cagliostro se Venge, set many years and books after La Comtesse, master-criminal Arsene Lupin is finally confronted with Cagliostro's revenge. It starts out with a normal day for Lupin, who is doing reseach on a potential target, but little does he know that soon he, a young architect who lives in his mansion and the neighbours are soon to get involved with a murder. The murder is the starting sign of a long adventure of lovers, of people trying to blackmail Lupin (don't try it!), about old friends and enemies and the culmination of Cagliostro's revenge.

Like always, an Arsene Lupin novel is more a swashbuckling adventure by our master-criminal (compared to the more 'classic' short stories), but they seldom bore. I am kinda disappointed in the novel though; if I was an evil Countess woman with a criminal organisation to my disposal, I would have planned my revenge... more detailed? More sure? More... I don't know, hate-inspired revenge rather than a I'll-see-what-happens-revenge. The story is short too, so no awesome epic like 813. Which is still the best novel-length Arsene Lupin novel. This novel is somewhere in the OK-ish ~ not-really-worth-it range.

I only recommend reading this Lupin novel because it forms a set with the La Comtesse de Cagliostro, which does belong to required-reading list of Arsene Lupin. Some Lupin novels are best read in groups anyways, like Les Dents du tigre is best read together with 813, or how to a lesser degree Arsene Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmes and L'Aiguille creuse form a set within the Arsene Lupin timeline. But the plot-twist at the end of La Comtesse is really strongly connected with La Cagliostro se Venge, which automatically turns it into an important book within the Lupin world. Few qualities of its own, but recommended reading for the fans.

『揺れる警視庁１２００万人の人質』

「官憲の権力（ちから）なしでこの明治の世に、剣一本ではもはや何もできんのだぞ。」

「剣一本でも、この目にとまる人々くらいなら何とか守れるでござるよ。」

『るろうに剣心』

"Without the power of the government, there is very little you can do in the Meiji period with just one single sword."

"Even with just a single sword, I can at least protect the people around me."

 "Rurouni Kenshin"

Heh, reading English is a lot easier than Japanese, I can easily finish one or two books a day now! Of course, this does mean that I spend fewer days on Japanese books, which in turns means it will take longer for me to finish my backlog pile...

In Ellery Queen's Cat of Many Tails (Dutch translation: Paniek op Manhattan / "Panic in Manhattan"), a mysterious serial killer has been creating chaos in Manhattan. During an unbelievable hot summer, men and women from all classes and ages are found strangled, without a single clue to the identity of the murderer. Who is this "Cat", as the press call him, and how many lives is the Cat going to take? The police isn't able to find any connections between the victims and it seems like anyone in Manhattan could have committed the murders. Inspector Queen is made head of  the Cat investigation, but the police is stumped. What makes things even worse is that the population is getting very restless under the stress of the unknown assailant and the killer-heat. Ellery is appointed as a special advisor to the mayor to assist in the man-hunt, but can our man create logic out of chaos?

After several trips to Wrightsville better left unmentioned, Ellery Queen finally returns to his home-base: Manhattan! But the story is quite different from what we're used too: instead of a real mystery, a manhunt, a thriller, the search for that single killer amongst the population of Manhattan. And how to stop him! Or her! Or it! For who is the Cat, and why is he killing everybody? It's an interesting problem and the 'missing link' between the victims was wonderfully devious! Leave it up to Queen to find that single thread of logic. Of course, the search for something within a confined space was a specialty of Queen: see the search of the theater in The Roman Hat Mystery and The American Gun Mystery. Or compare to that other specialty of Queen, the reducing of suspects by comparing them to a list of characteristics of the killer (the killer is 1) left handed, 2) blind and 3) deaf, therefore it was A). Looking for a single killer within Manhattan is in fact a blown-up version of this, though executed in different way, as we don't even know what we're looking for.

I see many, many positive reviews of Cat of Many Tails, but I am not as enthousaistic about it as other, I think. It just feels too different from classic Queen. By the time you reach the plot-twist near the middle of the book, it's way too easy to see who the Cat is going to be and it's annoying to see post-Wrightsville!Queen angsting over everything, while we know that classic!Queen wouldn't have been so slow in getting to the truth. Seriously, it might be cool and post-modern and I don't know what for a detective to angst over his abilities to save mankind or something like that, but I sure don't like it (note: I'm very sure that I feel this also partially because I read Cat of Many Tails right after Rouletabille chez le Tsar, where Rouletabille ends up freaking out too at the end).

Cat of Many Tails has some great parts in the beginning though, with the descriptions of the lives of the victims of different layers of New York society. Similar passages are found in The ABC Murders, but the big difference to me is that our victims here are all inhabitants of Manhattan; the city is alive more than in other Queen novels, with the population feeling as one big entity. You feel that the fear for the serial killer is slowly but surely rising in the city and the culmination of that fear in riots was one of the more captivating parts of the book.

The way the victims are linked is smart and I like the depiction of Manhattan in this novel, but it's just so far away from what I expect, want from a Queen novel that I doubt I'll ever really like it as much as other people seem to do. Sure, Cat of Many Tails ranks amongst the better late-period Queens, but that is not saying much.

"I have eaten all your caviar. I am your guest. I am your friend"

Sometimes one only imagines things," said Rouletabille, keeping his hand on the door.

"Oh yes," said the other, growing more and more melancholy. "So a man suffers.He is his own tormentor; he himself makes the wheel on which, like his own executioner, he binds himself."
"Rouletabille chez le Tsar"

While I love Maurice LeBlanc's Arsene Lupin novels, I really regret I can't read them in the original French. I just can't seem to get feeling for the language. Strangely enough, I had few problems with Latin at school, but French... I just can't do it. I feel the same regret about Gaston Leroux's Rouletabille series, which I have read in English. While not perfect, it's hard to not acknowledge how some problems in Le Mystère de la Chambre Jaune were simply brilliant. I have to be honest and say I can remember absolutely nothing about the crimes in the sequel Le Parfum de la Dame en Noir, but as I don't feel an instant obnoxious feeling coming up like I feel with some Sayers' novels, I am going on a limb here and say it was at least entertaining.

The third Rouletabille novel picks up right where the previous left us. In Rouletabille chez le Tsar ("Rouletabille with the Czar", US: Secret of the Night), young French reporter Joseph Rouletabille is requested by the Czar himself to protect General Trebassof, responsible for subdueing a Nihilist revolution in Russia and the death of countless of young students. Designated as an enemy of the people for his deeds in the revolution by the Nihilists, there have been several attempts at the life of Trebassof. With his legs injured by a previous attempt with a bomb, Trebassof is confined to his house together with his wife and daughter. Despite an all-out security, somebody seems to be able to get into the house though, and it is up to the eccentric reporter to put a stop to this all.

Not sure what to think about the story. While the previous novels weren't that fair either, this novel was mostly a clueless mystery, with Rouletabille walking (crawling/swimming/etc.) around and then revealing unbelievable things we didn't know about. Yet, near the last two chapters some strings of plot were knitted together nicely and I felt positive about the book when I finished it. But I suspect I was just being fooled by a sweet aftertaste.

The poking around for the ways the Nihilists are going to attack the general is a big change from the previous two novels, which centered on good old crime scene investigation. Add in the change in writing style (no longer the notebook-style narration) and the new, rather antagonistic environment of Russia right after the subdueing of a bloody revolution attempt and and we have a novel that feels quite different from the previous novels. I guess you could do something really fun with the pre-emptive locked room mystery (solving how they're going to enter a locked room). But that is not really what Leroux did here. Too bad.

From the tone of my writings you can probably guess I am not really excited about this novel. If I think about the previous novels, I just see too much potential gone to waste. It's not completely awful, but it takes too long for just a small sniff of something nice.

「見た目は子供、頭脳は大人。迷宮なしの名探偵」

"He is the Napoleon of Crime, Watson, the organiser of half that is evil and nearly all that is undetected in this great city...",
"The Final Problem"

While it's always fun to see a master detective solve 'normal' crimes, we all know that things get serious when a master detective is pitted against a master criminal. We all know what happened with Holmes in his battle against Moriarty (but he got better). Or the battles of Holmes (or Sholmes) and Arsene Lupin. In more recent years, Tantei Gakuen ("Detective Academy Q")'s Q Class has been fighting against Pluto, an organisation that sells perfect crimes to would-be murderers. Tantei Gakuen Q's Pluto was a logical evolution of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Young Kindaichi")'s Puppeteer from Hell, a consulting murderer who came up with perfect crimes for his clients.

I was actually very surprised to see that the master criminal was the main theme of Nikaidou Reito's Akuma no Labyrinth ("The Devil Labyrinth"). Going by the title, I was expecting some kind of trick with a building or something like that. Especially as this book was written after Jinroujou no Kyoufu ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle"). But no. Akuma no Labyrinth is the story of the first skirmishes between master detective Nikaidou Ranko and master criminal Demon King Labyrinth. And yes, calling yourself a labyrinth is kinda strange. Calling yourself after a structure. A name like Puppeteer from Hell is scary. A labyrinth is a bit... abstract. And yes, I know that the term meikyuu-iri (lit.: inside a maze) means unsolved cases and that Demon King Labyrinth refers to that, i.e. his crimes can't be solved, but still. It's a really abstract name. Like calling yourself the Demon Archway or something.

But I digress. Set just before the events of Jinroujou no Kyoufu, Akuma no Labyrinth is split in two distinct parts, much like how Arsene Lupin contre Herlock Sholmes was basically two novelettes strung together. In the first story, The Mystery of Sleeping Limited Express Asakaze, a magican called Demon Satan is sent a threatening letter by Demon King Labyrinth, saying he is not worthy to carry the name of Satan. Just to be sure, Demon Satan's agent arranges for a private detective to accompany him on his trip from Tokyo to Fukuoka on the sleeping limited express Asakaze. It was for naught though, as 1) Demon Satan disappears from his room, 2) the dead body of his assistent who had been standing on the platform when they took off is found inside the room, 3) and all that in a triple locked environment; inside a moving train, inside a locked room, right under the nose of the private detective! The police ask Ranko for her help (who had received her own warning letter of Demon King Labyrinth by now), thus beginning the battle between Ranko and Labyrinth. A locked room using a trick I have seen before, but executed well mostly, except on one little point, which was passed over all too easily, in my opinion. I might want to check with a train-expert fan, but it sounded a bit too easy.

The battle continues in The Secret of the Glass House, which was like an Edogawa Rampo story, with too much strange happenings in a short time period. First the search of an abandoned mansion which seems to be an old hide-out of Labyrinth. A couple of Scooby-Doo secret doors and underground hallways lead to something which seems like a clue to Labyrinth's plans. And a lot of dead bodies. And then an intermezzo of a man discovering a cave holding frozen statues of naked dead men (think Kurotokage ("The Black Lizard")). And finally a locked room murder in a house of... well, mainly glass. Which was way too easy to solve. Other aspects of the mystery were impossible to solve on the other hand and Ranko's 'deductions' really came from nowhere. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced this was intended as an homage to Edogawa Rampo.That is the only explanation for the cannibal appearing.

And then it stops. Without a real conclusion. It seems like Nikaidou intended Akuma no Labyrinth to be a series-opener or something. As of now, we only have vague hints about who/what Labyrinth is and a lot of foreshadowing. As of now, this is really nothing more than just a teaser and we don't even get any real developments in the conclusion of the book. It's entertaining stuff, but it feels a bit incomplete. I guess I'm expected to read the rest in following books.

The introduction of a nemesis to Ranko is kinda... surprising though. I can't remember the last time I saw a master-detective/master-criminal show-off in a novel. Often enough in manga and movies, but in a novel series? On the other hand, seeing how Jinroujou no Kyoufu ended, it was not totally unexpected, I guess. You could say Nikaidou was just building on some themes introduced there. And yes, it's sorta cheap to set this book before the events of Jinroujou no Kyoufu, because it allows Nikaidou to write on with Ranko. No, she doesn't die there, or anything like that at all (so stop the guessing or saying I'm spoiling things), but it's significant that Nikaidou chose to set this book (and I guess subsequent books with Labyrinth) before Jinroujou no Kyoufu.

I'm reading my Nikaidou books in the worst order possible though. I still haven't read the first Nikaidou Ranko novel yet (yes, I have it), but I pretty much have read her greatest cases already and it seems that continuity in this series is actually slightly relevant.

Oh, and the reviews (yes, plural) for the following few days are of gasp! Western books.

Original Japanese title(s): 二階堂黎人 『悪魔のラビリンス』

「どうか私とワルツを」

「僕は宇宙から吊革のようにぶら下がる真理を常に鼻先に見ている。こいつを右手で掴んで立っているから、このぎゅうぎゅうの満員電車が右に左にいくら揺れ ても、一向に平気なんだよ。君たちにはこの吊革が永久に目にいらないんだ。ほら、ここにあるのにね」
『ある騎士の物語』

"I always see the truth in front of me, like one of those straps hanging in the train. Because I am holding it in my right hand, I'm always alright, no matter how much this jam-packed train moves left or right. But you never see the strap. Even though it's just there."
"A Story of A Knight"

Once again a book I'm sure I have read partially, because some parts are very familiar, but I never finished any of the stories here for some reason or another. All well, the last Mitarai Kiyoshi book I have here and as I don't plan to buy more books in the nearby future, the last Mitarai Kiyoshi review for the time being.

Mitarai Kiyoshi no Dance (Mitarai Kiyoshi's Dance) is the second short story collection in the series, after Mitarai Kiyoshi no Aisatsu.The stories are still written in the same formula: Ishioka Kazumi tells us about the strange cases he encounters with his roommate Mitarai Kiyoshi, a fortune-teller turned private detective. Like Holmes, Mitarai is a rather eccentric young man (and Ishioka suffers a lot) with a brilliant mind. In recent years, Mitarai has become quite famous, thanks to the books Ishioka publishes about their adventures. Mitarai fanclubs exist and in fact, the last story in this shory story collection, Kinkyou Houkoku ("Report of Recent Affairs") is not a mystery story, but a short essay where Ishioka gives in to the fans' demand and tells about what Mitarai has been doing lately, what he reads, how their apartment looks like etc. Cute for the fans of Mitarai as a person, but I'd rather have a mystery...

But there are of course crimes to be solved in this collection. It starts with Yamatakabou no Ikaros ("Icarus with a Bowler Hat"), a fun story about a question I had asked myself too: what are those doors in buildings for that lead to nothing but air? You know, on the outside of the buildings, you sometimes see doors that aren't connected to emergency stairways or anything at all. One artist thinks it's for a select group of people who can fly. All the pictures he draws contain a man dressed in a suit and bowler hat, flying. He says his wife can fly. And he thinks he himself can fly too. And the police is inclined to think he's right, when one day they find his dead body lying on electric lines hanging high above his apartment. A not too difficult crime, but just very amusing to read because of the developments and because Shimada's grand tricks are always fun to read.

The second story, Aru Kishi no Monogatari ("A Story of a Knight") is the best of the bunch. Ishioka tells Mitarai a story he picked up at a wedding, about the murder of a man many years ago who had betrayed his employees/friends and his own girlfriend for money. The four friends and the girlfriend had the motive. They had a gun in their possession. In fact, the girlfriend was all ready to shoot him. But it was impossible for any of them to have commited the murder: they were miles away and with the heaviest snowfall in times, they just couldn't have made it to the murder scene, even though they wanted to. Mitarai of course solves this crime of the past just by listening to the story. Another of Shimada's grand tricks, a bit unbelievable in the practical sense of things, but oh-so-much fun.

The final story Butoubyou ("Dance Fever") is the weakest story of the three and sadly enough the longest too. Mitarai is asked by an restaurant owner in Asakusa to investigate a tenant, an old man who seems to have the strange habit of suddenly dancing at night. Add in a bunch of other mysterious events (the tenant's son paying a fortune for the room, a murder of an old dentist the same day, and Mitarai becoming friends with some homeless people) and you have a big mystery for Ishioka, but anyone slightly familiar with the classics instantly knows what is going on. But the story keeps dragging on and on and on... The only thing nice about the story is the setting in old Asakusa (also in the opening story Yamatakabou no Ikaros), which recalled old Edogawa Rampo stories.

Two good stories, one boring story and a non-mystery. Not sure what to think about the collection. Buy it cheap and only read the first half of the book? 

Original Japanese title(s): 島田荘司　『御手洗潔のダンス』/「山高帽のイカロス」/「ある騎士の物語」/「舞踏病」/「近況報告」

「あの娘のまえには多くの男の血が流されるであろう。彼女は女王蜂でる」

"Love is a moment of weakness that allows someone to hurt you more than you ever thought possible. Men were given the strength to be brutes to women, and women were given love to wreck their revenge"
"Discworld Noir"

And still the Yokomizo Seishi pile doesn't seem to shrink. It's going a lot slower than I'd expected. Even with a book every week it seems like that pile is still as high as ever.

Jooubachi ("Queen Bee") is another of those high-profile Kindaichi Kousuke novels, that often makes the jump to both the small and the silver screen. With a focus on beautiful women, it's not too surprising maybe. As per the will of her mother, Daidouji Tomoko is to move from the island of Gekkintou to her stepfather in Tokyo after her 18th birthday.. Brought up on Gekkintou by her grandmother and her tutor, Tomoko has turned out to be just like her mother: a beautiful woman who manages to capture the hearts of every man around her. She is not a temptress or something like that though, she just has something that attracts men,without herself being aware of it. However, someone seems to have something against her, as several persons close to her receive threatening letters saying she should never leave Gekkintou. For she, like her mother, is a Queen Bee, and the men who try to get close to her will die.

Kindaichi Kousuke is hired to accompany Tomoko, her grandmother and her tutor on their way to Tokyo, and they meet up halfway with Tomoko's stepfather, his son (no blood-relation to Tomoko) and three suitors for Tomoko he himself has selected. What was said in the threatening letters seems to be true though, because already after the first day one of the suitors is found murdered. And he is not the only one to go. The murders in the present seem to be connected with the death of Tomoko's real father, 19 years ago, a picture of a bat nobody has seen and a certain locked room, but is Kindaichi Kousuke able to solve these interlinked crimes in the past and present?

Of course he solves it. Like so often, Kindaichi only manages to solve the crime after dozens of people have died, true, but he does solve the case. Seriously, Kindaichi Hajime might not be very much like his grandfather, but they both have the knack of not being very useful in preventing serial killings, only in solving them afterwards. Even if they have their suspicions, they never seem to actually act on it and well, maybe try to shorten the list of the dead.

For a Kindaichi Kousuke case though, the setting of Jooubachi is pretty different: most of the novel is set in relatively urban spaces (murders occur in a hotel and theater amongst others) and I have to say I was really surprised when I realized not much was going to happen on the island of Gekkintou. I was expecting murder and mayhem before Tomoko could ever leave the island, but when they left the island in like a two-sentence description, I was both disappointed (no island murders?) and happy (at least I don't know what's going to happen). Despite the urban setting though, this novel does feel like a genuine Kindaichi Kindaichi novel with the serial killings, complex family relations, multiple persons with their own agendas working against each other making the mystery that more hard to understand and a lot of scratching of the head by Kindaichi.

The mystery itself though, is not entirely fair, as even though the red herrings were easy to spot and I had set my sight on the right person, there was actually little proof that definitely indicated the real criminal. You sense who it is quite quickly and then you might come up with indications with hindsight, but it would be harder to build a case beforehand, I think. A lot of the backstory was told (too) late in the game too, which is a shame, because I do think this was a very enjoyable book. But don't expect much of the problem of the locked room. The plot runs at a high speed with things happening all the time and it simply never bores, something Yokomizo excels in. Unlike the last two Yokomizo novels I discussed (Yoru Aruku and Yatsu Haka Mura), this novel is written in a third person narrative, and like I thought, this style is much more suitable for the stories Yokomizo writes.

It's a perfectly enjoyable story at any rate and I'm actually pretty curious to the many movie/drama versions of Jooubachi, if only to see who is selected to play Tomoko. 

Original Japanese title(s): 横溝正史　『女王蜂』